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Presidential Key Events

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson -
03/04/1913: Congress divides the Department of Commerce and La…
Congress divides the Department of Commerce and Labor into two departments, with each having cabinet status.
March 04, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
03/04/1913: Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the twenty-eighth…
Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the twenty-eighth President of the United States. He proclaims it his duty “to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it.”
March 04, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
04/1913: The Ford Motor Company institutes the first automo…
The Ford Motor Company institutes the first automobile assembly line to produce the Model T. Company founder Henry Ford breaks precedence and pays his line workers $5 a day, believing that higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity and loyalty.
April 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
04/08/1913: President Wilson appears before Congress to speak …
President Wilson appears before Congress to speak about revising tariffs. Not since John Adams in 1800 had a President addressed Congress personally.
April 08, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
05/02/1913: President Wilson extends official recognition to t…
President Wilson extends official recognition to the new Republic of China.
May 02, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
05/14/1913: In one of the largest philanthropic acts in Americ…
In one of the largest philanthropic acts in American history, John D. Rockefeller donates $100,000,000 to begin the Rockefeller Foundation.
May 14, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
05/19/1913: In a discriminatory measure against the Japanese, …
In a discriminatory measure against the Japanese, Gov. Hiram W. Johnson signs the Webb Alien Land-Holding Law, prohibiting Japanese ownership of land in California. The statute is enacted despite the objection of President Wilson and the Japanese Government.
May 19, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
05/31/1913: The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution…
The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is enacted, providing for the direct popular election of U.S. senators. Previously, senators were chosen by their respective state legislatures. This amendment succeeds in diminishing the prestige of state governments and enhances popular control of the federal legislature.
May 31, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
08/27/1913: After considerable political instability in Mexico…
After considerable political instability in Mexico, following the assassination of President Francisco Madero, President Wilson declares the United States policy towards Mexico to be one of “watchful waiting.” Wilson refuses to recognize the new government of General Victoriano Huerta, who led the coup against Madero on February 22.
August 27, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
10/10/1913: From the White House, President Wilson detonates a…
From the White House, President Wilson detonates a charge to destroy the Gamboa Dike in Panama, leading to the completion of the Panama Canal.
October 10, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
12/10/1913: The Nobel Prize Committee selects Elihu Root, Theo…
The Nobel Prize Committee selects Elihu Root, Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of state from 1905 to 1909, as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
December 10, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
12/23/1913: In an effort to safeguard Amer…
In an effort to safeguard America's financial institutions, the American economy, and the supply of U.S. currency, the Federal Reserve Act is signed into law. In contrast to the economies of Europe, the U.S. economy had functioned without the sophisticated management of banking ever since Andrew Jackson destroyed the Second Bank of the United States in 1830. The Federal Reserve Act created a Federal Reserve System, comprised of a Federal Reserve Board, twelve regional reserve banks, and the underpinnings of a smooth central banking system.
December 23, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
Federal Reserve Act Signed

On December 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. The act created a Federal Reserve System, comprised of a Federal Reserve Board, twelve regional reserve banks, and the underpinnings of a smooth central banking system. It was the most comprehensive overhaul of the nation's banking system since the Civil War and represented one of the crowning achievements of President Wilson's New Freedom program. It helped to safeguard America's financial institutions, the American economy, and the supply of U.S. currency, and it created a new system that allowed a level of governmental control of the monetary supply that was unprecedented in American history. The Federal Reserve Act still provides the framework for regulating the nation's banks, credit, and money supply even today.

Wilson began to craft his monetary system soon after his election in 1912. He met with House Banking Committee Chairman E.C. Glass in December to discuss a variety of banking system plans emerging in Congress. Glass, a conservative Democrat from Virginia, favored a decentralized private system. Wilson remained wary of such a proposal and convinced Glass to consider drafting a plan that included privately controlled regional reserve banks that answered to a central government board with a minority representation for private bankers. Glass's plan contrasted with a competing Senate bill, drafted by progressive Oklahoma senator Robert Owen, which erected a system of reserve banks under direct governmental control. Progressives rallied to Owen's proposal and recoiled from Glass's privatization scheme as a system that would leave Americans at the mercy of Wall Street.

Wilson conferred with Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo and adviser Louis Brandeis on the proposals making their way through Congress. In a meeting on June 11, 1913, Brandeis pushed the President to support governmental control of the banking and currency systpem of the nation as progressives had proposed. He also convinced the President to leave private bankers off the proposed Federal Reserve Board. After his meeting with Brandeis, Wilson urged Glass to revise his bill. The President addressed Congress on June 22 to push forward banking reform, which he claimed must remain a government responsibility. After a bruising six-month debate in Congress, the progressives' version of the Federal Reserve Act passed Congress on December 19, and Wilson signed it December 23, 1913.

The Federal Reserve Act established a system of twelve districts that each housed a Reserve bank. It also required national banks to join the federal system and contribute six percent of their capital to the system. State banks and trust companies could also join the system. Federal Reserve banks issued notes to member banks with the amount of currency issued regulated by a central Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. This board was comprised of the secretary of the treasury, the comptroller of currency, and six other presidential appointees. The act allowed a more flexible system of currency distribution that could respond to economic conditions unique to a given region or that impacted the entire nation. The flexibility of the system benefited both farm and business interests.

December 23, 1913

Woodrow Wilson -
04/09/1914: In the port of Tampico, Mexican officials detain s…
In the port of Tampico, Mexican officials detain several U.S. Marines from the U.S.S. Dolphin. Despite the their quick release and an expression of regret by President Victor Huerta, U.S. Admiral Henry T. Mayo demands that Mexican troops salute an American flag as a sign of contrition. President Huerta refuses the demanded salute on April 11; three days later President Wilson orders American warships to Tampico Bay.
April 09, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
04/19/1914: In order to “obtain from General Huerta and his ad…
In order to “obtain from General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity of the United States,” President Wilson requests authorization from Congress to use force in Mexico. After some debate, both houses sanction such force on April 22.
April 19, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
04/21/1914: At Vera Cruz, Mexico, U.S. forces seize the custom…
At Vera Cruz, Mexico, U.S. forces seize the customhouse. Marines occupy the city and a detachment is sent to exact an apology from President Huerta for the arrest of several drunken U.S. sailors earlier in the month.
April 21, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
04/25/1914: President Wilson accepts the offer of arbitration …
President Wilson accepts the offer of arbitration presented by the “ABC Powers” of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile to resolve the Tampico controversy. The mediation proves unnecessary when Mexican President Huerta is forced to resign on July 15.
April 25, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
05/07/1914: Congress establishes Mother’s Day as the second Su…
Congress establishes Mother's Day as the second Sunday in May.
May 07, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
06/28/1914: A Serbian nationalist assassinates Archduke Franci…
A Serbian nationalist assassinates Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Serbia. This event serves as the proximate cause for the termination of diplomatic relations among the major European nations. One month later, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
June 28, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
08/04/1914: Germany launches war on Belgium, France, and Great…
Germany launches war on Belgium, France, and Great Britain. The United States declares its official neutrality as the Great War begins.
August 04, 1914

On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened to trans-oceanic traffic. Due to the outbreak of World War I earlier in the month, however, there was only modest commemoration and no official visit from President Woodrow Wilson. Only a few ships a day passed through the forty miles of locks in canal in its first few years of operation; after the World War I was over, this number increased to five thousand annually.

In 1903, the United States signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with Panama, which gave the United States perpetual control of the canal for a price of $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000. Work on the Panama Canal began in 1904. The building of the canal was originally under the direction of John Stevens. However, President Theodore Roosevelt found Stevens lacking as the head of the project and replaced him with George Goethels, who led construction to its completion. Goethels undertook a “lock-and-lake” plan for the canal route, excavating land on either side of Gatun Lake and constructing massive locks to regulate water levels rather than dig across Panama at sea level.

Workers cleared 50 miles of land between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Using primarily the labor of blacks from the Caribbean, the American construction team excavated more than 232 million tons to create the canal path. The canal's three poured-concrete locks measured 1,000 feet long and took four years to complete. Although completed six months ahead of schedule, the project was incredibly costly in dollars and lives. The United States spent almost $400 million on construction. Nearly 30,000 workers labored ten-hour days for ten years. They toiled in dangerous conditions and beset with swarms of mosquitoes bearing malaria and yellow fever. More than 5,500 workers died during construction, including 4,500 black laborers.

Initial plans for a grand armada procession through the Panama Canal upon its opening in August 1914 were cancelled when war broke out in Europe on August 3. That day the cement boat Cristobal became the first ship to pass through the canal. But it was not opened to trans-oceanic traffic until the 15th. Once operational, it shortened the voyage from San Francisco to New York by more than 8,000 miles. The process of building the canal generated advances in U.S. technology and engineering skills. This project also converted the Panama Canal Zone into a major staging area for American military forces, making the United States the dominant military power in Central America.

August 15, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
09/26/1914: President Wilson signs legislation establishing th…
President Wilson signs legislation establishing the Federal Trade Commission, which is designed to regulate business conglomeration.
September 26, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
10/14/1914: Signing the Clayton Anti-trust Act, President Wils…
Signing the Clayton Anti-trust Act, President Wilson advances the third legócorporate regulationóof his “New Freedom” program. The law strengthens the original Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 by prohibiting exclusive sales contracts, predatory pricing, rebates, inter-corporate stock holdings, and interlocking directorates in corporations capitalized at $1 million or more in the same area of business. The act restricts the use of the injunction against labor, and it legalizes peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts.
October 14, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
11/03/1914: Democrats gain five seats in the Senate giving the…
Democrats gain five seats in the Senate giving them a 56-40 majority. Democrats in the House fare worse, losing 61 seats. Nevertheless, Wilson's party retains a 230-196 majority with nine seats held by minor parties.
November 03, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
11/23/1914: U.S. forces in Vera Cruz, Mexico, are withdrawn as…
U.S. forces in Vera Cruz, Mexico, are withdrawn as a result of the resignation of Mexican President Huerta, who fails to win Wilson's support.
November 23, 1914

Woodrow Wilson -
01/02/1915: Congress approves a bill requiring literacy tests …
Congress approves a bill requiring literacy tests for all immigrants to the United States, although President Wilson vetoes the bill on January 28. Proponents of immigration restriction argue that the United States is allowing too many ill-qualified immigrants into the country, and justify their positions by appealing to religious, ethno-cultural, or racial prejudice.
January 02, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
01/25/1915: The first transcontinental telephone call is made …
The first transcontinental telephone call is made by the same men who had made the original telephone call in 1876. Speaking from New York City, Alexander Graham Bell tells Dr. Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”
January 25, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
02/23/1915: Nevada signs an easy divorce bill, requiring only …
Nevada signs an easy divorce bill, requiring only six months' residence for a divorce to take effect.
February 23, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
05/07/1915: A German U-Boat torpedoes the British passenger li…
A German U-Boat torpedoes the British passenger liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. The American public recoils at the loss of 1,198 civilians, including 114 Americans. The Wilson administration issues a fiery response to Germany, holding that nation responsible for the loss of American lives and the violation of American neutrality. Eager to keep the United States at bay, Berlin promptly expresses its regret but claims that the British were illegally smuggling arms aboard the ship.
May 07, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
Lusitania Sinks

On May 7, 1915, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed the British luxury liner Lusitania within sight of the Irish coast. The largest passenger ship in wartime transatlantic service at the time, the Lusitania was struck by a single torpedo and sank in twenty minutes after a second internal explosion. Of the more than 1,900 people on board, nearly 1,200 died, including 128 Americans.

After the outbreak of World War I in Europe in the summer of 1914, Britain laid a blockade upon German ports. In response, Germany deployed experimental attack submarines, called U-boats, in the Atlantic Ocean. The German government declared the waters around the British Isles a war zone in February 1915 and cautioned that its U-boats would sink any ship entering the zone without warning. Germany justified the action of unrestricted submarine warfare by claiming that Britain had violated its own freedom of the seas with the blockade. The German government also argued, correctly, that the British used neutral and civilian ships to transport munitions.

With the outbreak of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson led the United States in its declaration of neutrality. However, this stance began to be tested when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare. Shortly afterwards, four American citizens were killed in three U-boat attacks. Wilson debated a proper response to German violations of American neutrality with advisor Robert Lansing and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. While Wilson and his advisers debated, the Germans torpedoed the Lusitania.

The scale of the disaster shocked and enraged the American public and moved Wilson to take a defensive stand against Germany's violation of American neutrality rights at sea. The President issued a note to the German government demanding that it stop its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and pay reparations for the deaths of those Americans lost on the Lusitania. The German Imperial Government defended itself by reminding Wilson that the ship had been illegally carrying contraband munitions. It claimed it was the explosion of such munitions that so rapidly sank the ship.

Wilson found Germany's reply unconvincing and drafted a second note over Bryan's objections that urged Germany again to respect civilian and neutrals' “rights of humanity” and warned of his will to defend his own citizens. Bryan resigned rather than sign the second note because he felt that Wilson was not balancing both British and German violations of American neutrality. He was also concerned that the President was taking too hard a stance towards Germany that would leave the United States no alternative except to enter the war. After Bryan's resignation, Wilson promoted Lansing to secretary of state and issued a third note to Berlin warning that the United States would regard another sinking of a passenger liner as a “deliberately unfriendly” act.

Germany never accepted culpability for the loss of the Lusitania. While the German government maintained its position that it sank the ship within the conventions of war, it wanted to keep the United States from entering the war and issued secret orders to its submarine captains to stop sinking large passenger liners. Nevertheless, the Lusitania issue remained a lingering sore spot in American-German relations as the two nations drifted closer to war.

May 07, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
06/03/1915: The District Court of New Jersey rules that U.S. S…
The District Court of New Jersey rules that U.S. Steel is a lawful corporation and not in violation of anti-trust laws.
June 03, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
06/07/1915: William Jennings Bryan resigns as secretary of sta…
William Jennings Bryan resigns as secretary of state in protest over the Wilson administration's handling of the Lusitania sinking. Bryan thinks Wilson is acting too boldly and calls on him to take a more moderate approach, banning American travel on belligerents' ships. Wilson names Robert Lansing acting secretary of state.
June 07, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
07/21/1915: A third Lusitania note is dispatched to Ger…
A third Lusitania note is dispatched to Germany, warning the nation that any consequent violation of American rights would be viewed as “deliberately unfriendly.”
July 21, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
07/29/1915: U.S. Marines land in Haiti to restore order after …
U.S. Marines land in Haiti to restore order after the assassination of Haitian president Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. With the country suffering seemingly endless political strife, Wilson justifies the intervention as an exercise in teaching Haitians “how to elect good men.”
July 29, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
09/16/1915: Haiti signs an agreement with the United States to…
Haiti signs an agreement with the United States to become an American protectorate for ten years. U.S. forces would not leave Haiti until 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt withdraws them in accordance with his “Good Neighbor” policy.
September 16, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
10/15/1915: American bankers, organized under J.P. M…
American bankers, organized under J.P. Morgan & Company, authorize a $500 million loan to the British and French governments.
October 15, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
12/04/1915: Georgia grants the Ku Klux Klan a new state charte…
Georgia grants the Ku Klux Klan a new state charter after decades of dormancy.
December 04, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
12/18/1915: President Wilson marries Edith Bolling Galt in a W…
President Wilson marries Edith Bolling Galt in a Washington, D.C., ceremony. The two honeymoon briefly in Virginia.
December 18, 1915

Woodrow Wilson -
01/28/1916: Wilson appoints Louis B. Brandeis to the Supreme C…
Wilson appoints Louis B. Brandeis to the Supreme Court. He is the first Jewish justice in American history.
January 28, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
03/15/1916: General John Pershing begins a punitive expedition…
General John Pershing begins a punitive expedition into Mexico, without the approval of the Mexican government, to capture Pancho Villa and his bandit force. Villa had staged raids along the U.S.-Mexico border after President Wilson failed to support his claims on the leadership of the Mexican government.
March 15, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
05/1916: U.S. Marines land in Santo Domingo, Dominican Repu…
U.S. Marines land in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to restore political stability. The American occupation continues until 1924.
May 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
05/05/1916: Germany issues the “Sussex Pledge” after a U-Boat …
Germany issues the “Sussex Pledge” after a U-Boat sinks another passenger ship, the French liner Sussex, without warning on April 24. Following protests from Washington about German unrestricted submarine attacks, the German government promises not to sink any more merchant ships without prior warning and without time for passengers and crew to abandon ship.
May 05, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
06/03/1916: Congress passes the National Defense Act in respon…
Congress passes the National Defense Act in response to deteriorating relations between Germany and the United States. The act bolsters the standing Army to 175,000 and the National Guard to 450,000.
June 03, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
06/07/1916: New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes earns the n…
New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes earns the nomination for President at the Republican National Convention. Delegates select Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana as Hughes' running mate.
June 07, 1916
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June 10, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
06/17/1916: After U.S. forces enter his country, the Mexican c…
After U.S. forces enter his country, the Mexican consul at Brownsville, Texas, issues an ultimatum for their withdraw. Four days later, on June 21, American troops come under fire from Mexican forces in Carrizal with seventeen troops killed or wounded.
June 17, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
07/17/1916: President Wilson signs the Federal Farm Labor Act,…
President Wilson signs the Federal Farm Labor Act, establishing a banking system for farmers to improve their holdings.
July 17, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
07/22/1916: A bomb explodes in San Francisco during a Prepared…
A bomb explodes in San Francisco during a Preparedness Day parade, killing ten and wounding forty. Labor leaders Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings are convicted in the case on dubious evidence in 1917. Mooney, originally sentenced to death, would be pardoned in 1939; Billings would be released in 1940.
July 22, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
07/30/1916: An ammunition depot explodes and destroys docks at…
An ammunition depot explodes and destroys docks at Toms River Island near Jersey City, New Jersey. Investigators blame German saboteurs in for the attack and for an explosion at a munitions plant in Kingsland, New Jersey, on January 17, 1917.
July 30, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
08/04/1916: The U.S. and Denmark sign a treaty for the purchas…
The U.S. and Denmark sign a treaty for the purchase of the Danish West Indies for $25 million.
August 04, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
08/25/1916: The National Park Service is established under the…
The National Park Service is established under the Department of the Interior.
August 25, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
09/03/1916: President Wilson signs the Adamson Eight-Hour Act,…
President Wilson signs the Adamson Eight-Hour Act, mandating an eight-hour day standard for most railroad workers.
September 03, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
11/07/1916: Woodrow Wilson is reelected President of the Unite…
Woodrow Wilson is reelected President of the United States by a 23-vote margin in the Electoral College. Wilson staves off stiff competition from Charles Evans Hughes, winning a 49.6 percent majority of the popular vote versus Hughes' 46.1 percent. Wilson runs on the slogan “He kept us out of War” despite the growing implausibility of U.S. neutrality in the Great War. The election hinged on Wilson's slim 4,000-vote majority in California, where Hughes' loss of support from Governor Hiram Johnson may have cost him the election. In congressional elections, the Democrats maintain a 53-42 majority in the Senate and a thin 216-210 majority in the House of Representatives.
November 07, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
12/18/1916: In an effort to mediate a settlement to the battle…
In an effort to mediate a settlement to the battlefield stalemate in Europe, President Wilson dispatches identical peace notes to all the belligerents, asking for the war aims of each.
December 18, 1916

Woodrow Wilson -
01/22/1917: President Wilson criticizes the European…
President Wilson criticizes the European powers' war aims in a speech in the Senate, urging the combatants to accept “peace without victory” to ensure a settlement free of rancor that could ignite another war.
January 22, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
01/28/1917: The War Department recalls U.S. forces under Gener…
The War Department recalls U.S. forces under General Pershing from Mexico after searching in vain for Pancho Villa for almost a year.
January 28, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
01/31/1917: The German government informs the United States th…
The German government informs the United States that its naval forces will resume unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic the next day.
January 31, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
02/03/1917: In reaction to the German resumption of unrestrict…
In reaction to the German resumption of unrestricted attacks against merchant shipping, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
February 03, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
02/05/1917: Congress overrides President W…
Congress overrides President Wilson's veto of the Immigration Act, which requires a literacy test for immigrants and restricts the entry of Asian laborers not covered by separate diplomatic agreements.
February 05, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
02/24/1917: British officials present Walter Hines Page, U. S.…
British officials present Walter Hines Page, U. S. ambassador to Great Britain, with a coded message from German foreign minister Alfred Zimmerman to the German ambassador of Mexico. The note instructs its recipient to seek a German-Mexican alliance in the event of war with the United States, and authorizes the German ambassador to offer the Mexican government the return of territory it lost to the United States in the Mexican-American war in return for Mexican military involvement.
February 24, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
03/01/1917: The White House releases the contents of the Zimme…
The White House releases the contents of the Zimmermann Telegram to the press, three days after Wilson asks Congress for the authority to arm merchant ships.
March 01, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
03/04/1917: President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas…
President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas Marshall are inaugurated for second terms. In his inaugural address, Wilson reiterates the U.S. stance on neutrality but clearly hints at the almost certain likeliness of American intervention in the World War. Wilson declares that “The tragic events of the thirty months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation are involved whether we would have it so or not.”
March 04, 1917

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04/02/1917: The first woman in the House of Representatives, R…
The first woman in the House of Representatives, Rep. Jeannette Rankin (R-MT), is seated.
April 02, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
04/02/1917: As the 65th Congress opens its first session, Pres…
As the 65th Congress opens its first session, President Wilson asks for a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson argues that the United States needs to wage war to “make the world safe for democracy.”
April 02, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
04/04/1917: Congress debates and votes on a declaration of war…
Congress debates and votes on a declaration of war against Germany. The Senate approves the declaration on April 4 by a vote of 82-6; on April 6, the House of Representatives passes the resolution by a vote of 373-50. Wilson signs the declaration on April 6.
April 04, 1917
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April 06, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
United States Declares War on Germany

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. Although President Woodrow Wilson had campaigned for reelection in 1916 emphasizing how he had kept the United States out of the war, he soon realized that the United States could not stand by and remain neutral in the Great War.

At the end of January 1917, German U-Boats resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, attacking ships in the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly afterwards, the British released the Zimmermann telegram to the American government. The telegram revealed a German plot to try to entice Mexico into joining against the United States. President Wilson told the nation at his second inaugural on March 5 that he felt the United States had no control over its neutral status and that outside pressures “have drawn us more and more irresistibly into their current and influence.”

Nevertheless, Wilson remained locked in a remarkable struggle between conflicting principles in his own ideology over the decision whether to go to war. Congress and the public were divided enough on the issue of intervention that the decision to enter the Great War fell on Wilson alone. He remained hopeful in early 1917 for a “peace without victory” that would secure a balance of power and equality of rights for all sides. But he feared that war would undo the progressive reforms he sought domestically and exacerbate the social divisions already present in the country. Nevertheless, Wilson believed that German behavior stood out of bounds of the civilized world and that a German victory would have disastrous consequences for Western civilization.

After the American press published the Zimmermann telegram, Wilson could count on support for a declaration of war if he asked for one from Congress. On April 2, 1917, the President decided to address a joint session of Congress that night. Wilson's speech asked for a declaration of war not as a crusade for justice, but as a somber and terrible act to “make the world safe for democracy.” In the speech, the President asked for increased taxation, a compulsory draft, and government repression of dissent to support the war cause. The Senate debated a war declaration first, passing it on April 4, and the House passed it on April 6. American troops did not enter combat until more than a year later.

To read the full proclamation from April 6, 1917, declaring a state of war between the United States and Germany, click here.

April 06, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
04/14/1917: President Wilson issues an executive order creatin…
President Wilson issues an executive order creating the Committee on Public Information and appoints Denver journalist George Creel as its head. The CPI coordinates propaganda and censorship efforts for the federal government throughout the war.
April 14, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
04/24/1917: President Wilson signs a bill instituting the firs…
President Wilson signs a bill instituting the first Liberty Loan drive, authorizing Secretary of Treasury William G. McAdoo to sell $3 billion of debt at 3.5 percent to the public.
April 24, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
05/18/1917: Congress passes the Selective Service Act, requiri…
Congress passes the Selective Service Act, requiring all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register with locally administered draft boards for a federal draft lottery. It is the first conscription act in the United States since the Civil War.
May 18, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
06/15/1917: Congress approves the Espionage Act, which Preside…
Congress approves the Espionage Act, which President Wilson had requested in his April 2 speech. The act severely limits freedom of expression, mandating that public criticism of the military or the government be punished by a $10,000 fine or up to twenty years in jail.
June 15, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
06/26/1917: The first U.S. troops arrive in France at St. Naza…
The first U.S. troops arrive in France at St. Nazaire.
June 26, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
09/05/1917: Federal agents stage raids against the Industrial …
Federal agents stage raids against the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in twenty-four cities, seizing literature and arresting ten, including William “Big Bill” Haywood.
September 05, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
11/03/1917: The first engagement involving U.S. forces in Euro…
The first engagement involving U.S. forces in Europe takes place near the Rhine-Marne Canal in France.
November 03, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
11/06/1917: Women in New York receive the franchise in accorda…
Women in New York receive the franchise in accordance with a state constitutional amendment.
November 06, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
11/30/1917: The U.S. 42nd “Rainbow Division” arrives in France…
The U.S. 42nd “Rainbow Division” arrives in France, comprised of troops from every state in the Union. Colonel Douglas MacArthur proclaims, “The 42nd Division stretches like a Rainbow from one end of America to the other.”
November 30, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
12/18/1917: Congress submits the Eighteenth Amendment to the U…
Congress submits the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the states for ratification. The amendment forbids the sale, manufacture, or transport of alcohol except under special circumstances.
December 18, 1917

Woodrow Wilson -
01/08/1918: In an address to Congress, President Wilson lists …
In an address to Congress, President Wilson lists his “14 Points” for a just and lasting peace. His objectives include the self-determination of nations, free trade, disarmament, a pact to end secret treaties, and a league of nations to realize collective security. This speech becomes the basis for Wilson's peace proposals at the end of the war.
January 08, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
The Fourteen Points

On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to Congress in which he presented his Fourteen Points that outlined his program of peace to end World War I. The first five points called for an end to secret treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, reduction of arms, and adjustment of colonial claims, taking into account the wishes of the colonial population. Wilson's sixth point called for Germany to withdraw from Russian territory and for Russian self-determination of its own government. The President then called for the restoration of Belgian, Italian, and French borders, the establishment of a Polish state, and autonomy for the ethnic peoples of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. Wilson's final and, in his mind, most important point was the establishment of a “general association of nations” that would foster international cooperation, freedom, and peace.

Wilson had drafted the Fourteen Points as a series of war aims he hoped would reinvigorate the Allied cause after Russia withdrew from the war following the November 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The war aims were based on the principle of “peace without victory” that Wilson had proposed in 1916 as a solution to the European stalemate. Along with his adviser, Colonel Edward House, Wilson had come up with his Fourteen Points after more than a year of discussions with other progressive thinkers, especially journalist Walter Lippmann, on what the United States should hope to accomplish through its intervention in the war.

Wilson intended his speech to rally support in the Allied governments to the idea of a league of nations and a more transparent international system. He hoped these war aims would entice the Russian people back into the war by giving them something worthy for which to fight. Wilson also hoped the democratic ideas of the proposal, especially self-determination, would breed unrest in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The Fourteen Points speech, as the New York Herald dubbed it, became the basis for Allied armistice plans. As Germany neared military defeat in the fall of 1918, the German government approached Wilson first in response to his Fourteen Points plan. The plan's territorial provisions and call for the establishment of a league of nations became the basis for a portion of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war in 1919. However, Wilson was unable to convince Britain, France, and Italy to pursue “peace without victory,” and he was forced to compromise on many points.

Still, as a work of international relations policy, Wilson's Fourteen Points represent one of the most remarkable efforts of an American President. Wilson's embrace of anti-imperialism and national self-determination made a lasting impact in international relations through the rest of the 20th century.

Woodrow Wilson -
05/16/1918: Congress passes the Sedition Act, which couples wi…
Congress passes the Sedition Act, which couples with the Espionage Act to limit freedom of expression during the war. The Sedition Act grants the Postmaster General the right to ban the mailing of publications deemed subversive, and erects heavy penalties for those criticizing the government or the war effort.
May 16, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
05/29/1918: President Wilson issues an executive order creatin…
President Wilson issues an executive order creating the War Industries Board, an agency designed to coordinate wartime production and transportation.
May 29, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
06/04/1918: The U.S. Second Division blunts a German advance o…
The U.S. Second Division blunts a German advance on Paris at Chateau-Thierry.
June 04, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
06/06/1918: The U.S. Second Division and Fourth Marine Brigade…
The U.S. Second Division and Fourth Marine Brigade counter a German offensive in the battle of Belleau Wood.
June 06, 1918
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June 25, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
08/29/1918: The Labor Department announces that the cost of li…
The Labor Department announces that the cost of living jumped seventeen percent in New York City from July 1917 to July 1918.
August 29, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
09/14/1918: Prominent socialist and presidential candidate Eug…
Prominent socialist and presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs is sentenced to a ten-year jail term for violating the Espionage Act, the result of an antiwar speech he delivered in Canton, Ohio, on June 30.
September 14, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
09/30/1918: President Wilson addresses the Senate with the mes…
President Wilson addresses the Senate with the message that women's suffrage was a “vitally necessary war measure.”
September 30, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
10/1918: The world-wide influenza epidemic reaches its heig…
The world-wide influenza epidemic reaches its height in the United States. The extremely virulent strain of the disease first develops in east-coast cities and spreads rapidly across the country and the Atlantic as a result of war-related transportation. The epidemic eventually claims more than 600,000 lives in the United States and perhaps 20 million globally.
October 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
11/05/1918: Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congr…
Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congress, securing a two-seat majority in the Senate and a comfortable cushion of fifty votes in the House.
November 05, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
11/09/1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates the throne of the Germ…
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates the throne of the German Empire after revolution breaks out in Germany.
November 09, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
11/11/1918: Allied and German military leaders implement an ar…
Allied and German military leaders implement an armistice. The new German government issues an appeal to President Wilson to negotiate peace along the lines he enumerated in his Fourteen Points speech.
November 11, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
11/21/1918: President Wilson signs the Wartime Prohibition Act…
President Wilson signs the Wartime Prohibition Act, banning the manufacture of alcohol for domestic sale effective from June 30, 1919, until demobilization.
November 21, 1918

Woodrow Wilson -
01/18/1919: The Paris Peace Conference opens, two weeks after …
The Paris Peace Conference opens, two weeks after President Wilson receives glowing welcomes in Rome and Paris.
January 18, 1919

Woodrow Wilson -
01/29/1919: The State Department announces the ratification of…
The State Department announces the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution as of January 16, 1919, when Nebraska's approval achieved the amendment's required three-fourths majority. A nation-wide ban on the sale, distribution, or production of alcoholic beverages will go into effect on January 16, 1920.
January 29, 1919